Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-12-04
Religious Notes.

In hamburg COllulttcc 10 tOLACOtlhS |
funds to build light iron church, which
can be taken down and transported from
place to place.
Archbishop Ryan will sail from New
York tomorrow on the Seryia, to make
his official visit to Rome. He will return
to Philadelphia in March next.
London has 100000 people unable
TO get into place of worship. In Cen
trail London, with 1000, 900, there is
only accommodation for 600, 900.
The five Episcopalian, four Congrega-
tional, and three Presbyterian churches
of Osaka, Japan, have q union prayer
meeting every Monday, holding it Ia
each church in turn.
The Church OF the Holy Cross in Ber-
lin is to have an electric organ. 1t is
the second of its kind in Germany the
first is in Aachen. II is said that an
electric organ remains in tune much
longer than the ordinary organ.
The Bishop of Fand du Lac 10 invited
to address the Protestant Episcopal
Clerical Brotherhood, Philadelphia, on
Monday next upon the Old Catholic
work among the Belgians of his diocese,
with which the name Of Father Vilatte
is associated.
About 5000 Protestants of the Ceven-
mes recently celebrated, on the top OF one
of the mountains where their ancestors
used to meet on Sunday, the centenary
of the Edict of federation, signed in
1887 by Louis XVI. The ceremony is
described by an eyewitness as having
been singularly impressive. A rustic
pulpit had been erected on the summit
Of the wild mountain which forms there
a plateau. Thirty pastors, in black silk
gowns, were seated in front and on a
ridge behind the congregation. COM
memoratiye stone was unveiled by pa
triarch OF Ceyennes, and Pastor Vigue,
of the Faculty of Protestant Theology
Of Paris, preached a sermon.
The independent says: The Bible is
the only source from which reliable in
formation can be had relating to the next
world. We may speculate " about the
future, talk about 1t, write about it,
preach about it, and insist upon it
that we know more than God has re-
vealed tous, but all such efforts andspecu-
lations are practically not worth straw.
"Who by searching can find out God "
except so far as he is revealed to us IN
the Bible? Nobody. For who can
tell man what shall be after him under
the sun ?" Nobody, except the one who
gets direct information from Gods Holy
Word. DR.. Smyth, Of Andover, and his
followers, should now think more and
talk less about this important matter.
In answer to criticisms on the subject,
the editor OF the SVnday-SchOot Times
says he "has never meant to be under
stood as saying, or as intimatlng, that
God is unwilling to stay the hand of dis
ease when earnestly entreated, in accord
ance with His promises On the con-
trary, he believes that God is just
as ready to-day as eighteen hundred
years ago to heal disease, to cast
out demons, to raise the dead when
ever such woodworking is for the
truest welfare of His children, or for His
cause as linked with the welfare of His
children. He believes most firmly, also,
that no medical skill nor any medical
treatment has efficiency for the curing of
disease save as God gives it efficiency,
and that faith-flled prayer is an ap-
proved agency of God for securing the
healing OF the sick, when healing is the
best of blessings for the sick"
The prospects Of organic union be-
tween the Northern and the Southern
I Presbyterian Churches, the independent
says, can hardly be regarded as bright
So far as the former body is concerned
there seems, notwithstanding some show
of zeal here and there, to be extensive
indifference to actual union. This
indifference springs partly, no doubt,
from the failure of past negotla-
ton, but still more from an
underlying conviction that such wide
differences of opinion and temper still
exist as render present unity impracti-
cable, even if formal union were al &C
complished fact. If union is to come, as
nearly all appear to expect at somo time,
the general Judgment is that It must
come, as the union OF the New and the
Old School came, without special terms,
conditions, or compromises-each party
taking the other as 1t is, for better or for
] worse.